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Widening Participation through Curriculum: Innovation in Design and Pedagogy. Stephanie Marshall . Chief Executive. 30 June 2014. Overview. Introduction and context Recruitment and Retention Progression Attainment and Employability. 1. Introduction and Context.
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Widening Participation through Curriculum: Innovation in Design and Pedagogy • Stephanie Marshall • Chief Executive • 30 June 2014
Overview Introduction and context Recruitment and Retention Progression Attainment and Employability
Impact of the reforms on recruitment Part-time Reality: Part-time entrants halved between 2010-11 and 2013-14 Reasons: higher fees, reduced employer funding, recession Recommends: promotion by HEP of part-time study as ‘legitimate’ and central, rather than marginal offer
Impact of the reforms on recruitmentPostgraduate: the response • In March 2014, the Treasury pledged £222 million to overcome ‘potential barriers in the postgraduate systems that may be restricting the supply of…higher skills’ • Postgraduate Support Scheme • The National Scholarship Programme
Impact of the reforms on recruitmentPostgraduate: ‘new frontier of WP’ That men are more likely than women to enter both kinds of higher degree – research and taught – with differences particularly marked for research degrees and across all disciplines. That Black Caribbean and Bangladeshi groups show lower than average rates of progression to taught postgraduate degrees and ‘exceptionally low’ rates of progression to research degrees.
Retention differentials • Low Participation neighbourhoods • Mature • School-type • Part-time Source: BIS, 2014, National strategy for access and student success • Gender • Ethnicity • Disability • Care leavers
Mature StudentsMature Students’ Welcome Lunch, University of Hull Welcome Lunch attendees who subsequently registered and began a programme of study were more likely to continue than the general mature student populace, with around 93% continuing beyond their first year. Building student engagement and belonging in Higher Education at a time of change: final report from the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme
Students with a disabilityMeaningful Student Engagement project As a result of the project the University of Glamorgan developed: … a new Curriculum Design Guide which makes explicit the inclusive curriculum agenda and the importance of the student voice in curriculum development. The training explicitly addresses inclusive curriculum themes and is provided to all students involved in the course validation and review process. This includes disabled students who are actively encouraged through the Disabled Students Forum to be members of course design project teams and validation panels. Report on the Meaningful Student Engagement project
Male access and success in HEA discussion paper • Purpose • Promote and inform debate within and between institutions about gendered differentials in HE • Provide an overview of the issues based on the latest research evidence • Highlight some institutional strategies designed to address the barriers thought to contribute to the underachievement of male students • Origins • The discussion papers was produced following the HEA seminar on ‘Male access and success in HE’ • In response to continuing sector wide concerns not only about gendered differences in attainment but also in the participation and retention of male students
Retention What works? Student retention and success change programme (phase 2: 2012-15)
Change objectives, then… • Improve strategic approach • Use learning and institutional data • Design clear outcomes and KPIs • Implement specific interventions • Evaluate impact
Guiding principals • Reducing the attainment gap should also be enshrined as an institutional key performance indicator • A holistic, longitudinal approach should be taken
Guiding principals • Students viewed as partners • Students involved in the design and implementation of inclusive learning, teaching and assessment activities • Empower staff to develop effective relationships with all students • Sharing of power and responsibility at the heart of student/staff relationships
Curriculum design Chris Hockings – Inclusive learning and teaching in HE Ann-Marie Houghton – Inclusive curriculum design Forthcoming – Embedding mental well being in the curriculum Different HEIs definition of curriculum:
Architecture of change Core project team Discipline team A Discipline team B Discipline team C
Inclusive curriculum “Everyone else went into [the] labs and they looked at all this equipment and they all knew what they were doing and fiddling around with stuff and I just thought ‘I’ve never seen this before’….you feel a bit embarrassed to put your hand up and say ‘I don’t know what the hell this is’.” (Student, Stevenson 2012:14)
Collaborative curricula “We do not always take into account local knowledge and expertise with adequate contextualisation… It comes across as "our way" is the only way.” UK Staff member referring to their UK transnational education programme, (O’ Mahony. 2014)
BME-SDG grants Reimagining attainment for all: enabling the success of BME studentsUniversity of Roehampton Disparities in student attainment: improving student attainment through an understanding of structures, spaces and peopleCoventry University Developing and evaluating the use of BME student mentoring as an intervention to narrow the attainment gapUniversity of Birmingham Writing beyond race: students as partners in curriculum designKingston University Supporting the degree attainment of black and minority ethnic students within creative disciplinesThe Arts University Bournemouth Co-construction and collective understanding of assessment criteria on final year projects (COCUAC)University of Leeds Mobilisationof research knowledge for student success (MoRKSS)Sheffield HallamUniversity Great Expectations: creating a positive environment to achieve positive outcomesThe Open University
Representation “Well, there was no ‘me’ on the course. There was nothing to represent me on the course. Black history, you know, is done in a week or a couple of days. That’s not enough…[I]n the course itself, there was no place there that I saw myself.”(Student, MacNamara and Coomber 2012, 23)
Staff “I want to know more about engaging international students both in the UK and when teaching abroad.” (Staff member, Scudamore 2013, p. 13) “[The] saddest thing about it was because I was the only one in the class, I didn’t feel strong enough to say that I was uncomfortable about it. And it just made me feel like an island in the classroom. All of a sudden, I felt so Black and so isolated and not strong enough to do anything about it because there wasn’t anyone on my side.” (Student, MacNamara and Coomber 2012, p.22)
Writing beyond race “The students realised that this is a very positive project and they were really open and willing to talk. They raised some issues about the curriculum we are now working on and also about which teaching and learning styles they prefer, which we’re also taking forward.” (Dr Sara Upstone, Principal Lecturer in English Literature, University of Kingston)
Defining and developing your approach to employability What: A holistic process for reflecting on and addressing employability provision The aim: To stimulate and facilitate discussion How: To be used in conjunction with the HEA publication Pedagogy for employability Why: Embedding employability into curriculum design to ensure learner success beyond higher education
Attainment gap We know that after ‘controlling for gender, prior attainment, (tariff score and type of Level 3 qualifications) disability, deprivation, subject of study, type of HEI, and age’ that being from a minority ethnic group is found to have a statistically significant and negative effect on degree attainment (Broecke and Nicholls 2007, p19)
Higher education as a tool of social mobility Input versus output in a new report by Michael Brown
